Update: Limited LIRR Service After Fire

Update: Here's the update from the MTA about tonight's LIRR commute, which will be made much more difficult due to a fire at a switching tower east of Jamaica.

Very limited LIRR service through Jamaica has been restored after a switch fire this morning eliminated the railroad's ability to switch trains from one track to another at Jamaica. As a result, there will be no regularly scheduled connections at Jamaica this evening.
- Far Rockaway and Hempstead Branch customers must catch their train from Atlantic Terminal, Brooklyn.
- Customers for all other branches please depart from Penn Station.
- Montauk Branch customers, please take a Babylon Branch train and change at Babylon.
- Oyster Bay Branch customers, please change at Mineola.
- Port Jefferson Branch customers, please change at Hicksville or Huntington.
- West Hempstead Branch customers, please change at Valley Stream for bus service.
- All service is operating normally on the Port Washington Branch.

MTA New York City Transit and MTA Long Island Bus are honoring LIRR tickets. The MTA Police, in conjunction with the NYPD and Amtrak Police, will work to reduce overcrowding at Penn Station.

Good luck with your commutes! Let know how it goes in the comments.

From 12:46 p.m.: Let's hope this gets cleared up by the evening commute: Long Island Rail Road service is suspended in both directions on ALL lines except Port Washington! According to Newsday, "The signal malfunction began at 10:40 a.m. and it was unclear when the problem would be resolved, according to LIRR spokesman Rich Mendelson. He said the malfunction was not weather-related."

In fact, the malfunction is related to a fire: Apparently there was an electrical fire at a switching tower! WCBS 2 says, "Westbound passengers headed for Penn Station will have to take a subway into Manhattan from Jamaica. Eastbound customers should take a subway out of Penn Station to the Jamaica Station to get to their LIRR train," but the MTA website says all the lines (except Port Washington) are suspended. And NYC Transit is honoring LIRR passes on subways between Manhattan and Jamaica, Brooklyn.

Check here for more updates.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Chung in News on August 23, 2010 5:07 PM

Comments [rss]

larkstreet

It should be pointed out that Jamaica is in Queens, not Brooklyn.

Teddy

so uhm is this issue and delay resolved by now? i happen to be goin to Jamaica hub to take air train to Kennedy airport tonight. I'm guessing it should be resolved by now, let me know please of any updated details. Thanks.

Kevin Bracken

For all the doom and gloom I heard about this, including a very rare subway-wide announcement re: the LIRR, I had little trouble using the LIRR today at exactly 5:00 PM. My ride took about 15 minutes longer than the schedule.

On my ride back to Brooklyn, there were still no transfers at Jamaica, though, so I took the subway from Penn.

Sorry I don't have any stories about 3 hour waits!

DEFIANTROA

Wait until the winter, I am sure MTA customers will have a great time with all the signal problems waiting to come and the occasional idiot who decide to jump in front of the train. Welcome to the year 2010, the grand future of human advancement in technology and communication. Where you can still be standing on the train after paying $19 for a LIRR ticket.

Cranky Old Man

Let me guess.. it was either covered in some kind of highly flammable grease or the materials around it were allowed to become so dry that it was only a matter of time before a short or a spark ignited the entire thing. If someone like Vanderbilt was running that railroad in this day and age, you could bet your life he would find the idiot responsible for inspecting that component and tear him or her a new hole in their anatomy. C'mon newspapers - do your job. I want to see the idiot's face plastered all over the front page!

dracula mountain

nice MTA link

jaycjay

"Eastbound customers should take a subway out of Penn Station to the Jamaica Station to get to their LIRR train,"

You know, things will go wrong on this kind of system. So service being out because a fire, switch problems, whatever... no problem.

But where there is a problem at LIRR and throughout the MTA is in communication and coordination when things do go wrong.

I happened to be going to Long Island today. So was at Woodside to catch a Ronkonkoma train. In the waiting area upstairs from the platform by the ticket booth, there were no announcements of any kind. Two Penn Station-bound trains were on the LED board marked "delayed" so there wasn't even room for my train's status to be displayed. The third train listed was on the Port Washington branch so it was "on time" on the display -- so it appeared that eastbound traffic was probably OK.

So it wasn't until I walked downstairs to catch my train that I heard an announcement made at track level that service was suspended. Walked back upstairs, and was told at the booth to take the subway to Jamaica to reach eastbound service. Of course, then, after arriving at Jamaica I found out that not only was that not true, but now they were saying that the fire and switch issue happened east of Jamaica, so of course service wouldn't be available in that direction.

My train was supposed to leave Woodside at 11:26 -- nearly an hour after this situation began. How is that not enough time to alert the very few ticket booths that are actually occupied as to what exactly the situation is?

rhonda718

You really should update your post. LIRR press conference is saying, "do NOT take the subway to Jamaica.. very limited access there"...

mtauser

Who/what caused this electrical fire and were the switches at the LIRR modernized in this facility or are these the old switches which prolly had a scheduled upgrade anyways?

I guess if they rebuild it, will take time.

Michael

Buddy, all LIRR rider (barring Port Washington) travel to NYC via Jamaica everyday, for every trip as it is the central hub of the system. I hardly think anyone is "scared" of going to Jamaica. Rather, there is no reason to take the subway to Jamaica to catch a train that isnt there.